Ackerman is right on settlements, peace
Write your Rep.

On February 12th, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) delivered an extraordinary statement during a hearing on Gaza. His statement references violence, terrorism, and political cowardice as factors in a downward spiral affecting the peace process. It also includes some of the clearest language in memory of Congressional frustration with Israeli settlers and settlement activities - including references to settlement and outpost growth, settler violence, and the ongoing settler digs in and around Jerusalem's Old City. Here is an excerpt from his statement. (You can find the complete statement in Friday's edition of APN's Legislative Round-Up):
 "It only looks like we're going in circles. In fact, we're spiraling downward. I don't know where the bottom is, but I know it's there and I know it's getting closer every day. It will hit with shattering force when, through malice and terror, through shallow calculation and venal self-interest, through short-sightedness and through political cowardice, the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is finally rendered impossible. "The downward pressure comes from terrorism and the march of settlements and outposts, from the firing of rockets and the perpetration of settler pogroms. It comes in daily images of destruction and the constant reiteration that 'they only understand the language of force.' It comes in the form of a political party that's always just a few months away from reform and in the form of governing coalitions whose chief purpose is avoiding new elections. It comes in the form of promises that bloodshed is what God desires and declarations that dirt and stones mean more than human life. It comes from tunnels in Gaza and from digging in Jerusalem as well. There is no moral equivalence between these acts but they are part of the same destructive dynamic." 

This is exactly the kind of message Members of Congress need to be sending to the Administration and Israel regarding settlements and outposts. Ackerman's statement is particularly important because he chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, but it bears noting that Ackerman was not the only courageous voice at the hearing: Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) said that "the notion that Israel can continue to expand settlements, whether it be through natural growth or otherwise without diminishing the capacity of a two-state solution is both unrealistic, and I would respectfully suggest hypocritical."

LINK:
http://capwiz.com/peacenow/issues/alert/?alertid=12729291